I entered the world at dinner time (appropriate) on August 12, 1977 - a birthday I share with such greats as Cecil B. Demille, Christy Mathewson, Pete Sampras and, most notably, Michael Ian Black. My parents found me at St. Joseph's Hospital in west Kansas City, Missouri, but quickly took me home to their comfy confines in Belton, Missouri - home of one axe-wielding Carry Nation. Belton is also, as you'll see in our town museum, the home of the first motivational speaker - Mr. Dale Carnegie.

After a few years in Belton, the Gough tribe went east and moved to Matthews, North Carolina, for a couple of years. It was there that I first started putting on my own talent shows for the local community ... also known as parents of my neighborhood friends. About the only things I remember from the time are (1) my Dad's 30th birthday party, which included a belly dancer, (2) playing with friends at huge playgrounds with stationary old planes, trains and military vehicles and (3) lots of Big Wheels and assorted Underoos.

Anyway, back to the timeline. The Goughs moved back to Belton, Missouri, in 1983, and I continued my public education throughout the Belton School District #124, including Belton High School - home of the purple and gold Pirates. Yes, Pirates. Fitting for a town landlocked in the middle of a continent. Carry Nation wasn't a pirate. Neither was Harry Truman or Dale Carnegie. I guess it was advanced thinking that brought us the sword-wielding, one-eyed mascot. Anyway, in school, I took a liking to journalism and became the editor of our junior high and high school yearbooks, and that liking led me to look towards journalism as a career.

After giving up my dream of walking onto the Duke Blue Devils basketball team, I decided to stay in state and attend the greatest journalism school in the civilized world at the University of Missouri. It was two hours away -- a perfect distance for parents and others to not visit unless calling first, which, at the time, was very important for some reason.

During my time at Mizzou, I met another member of the Broadcast Journalism program who was from a town called Norwalk, Connecticut. At the time, I knew little about anything east of St. Louis. The guy knew I was a pro-wrestling fan as a kid, and he approached me during our sophomore year and explained that his parents lived near the headquarters of the World Wrestling Federation. He said that if I wanted to, I could live with his parents over the coming summer as he and I interned for the wrestling company. I thought it was a great idea, and I accepted the offer, mailing in my resume and cover letter to WWF. A few months later, the kid nonchalantly tells me his parents were moving to Minnesota, so he wouldn't be taking part in the internship. I confronted my parents about the possibility of still taking part in the internship, and they said if I got it, they would help financially.

Too bad for them ... I got it. You know, I still believe they never thought it was really happen. I spent the summer of 1997 in Stamford, Connecticut, logging tapes and learning the ropes as a production assistant with WWF. It *was* still called WWF at the time. Bret Hart was champ, the nWo was still cool and Vince McMahon was still the goofy play-by-play announcer on television.

When I returned to Mizzou the following year, I decided I wanted to start up a wrestling radio show on campus. Wrestling was hot then, and television ratings were skyrockting upward. I approached our campus radio station - KCOU 88.1 FM - and found out that if I wanted a "specialty show," I would have to earn it. That's when I bumped into D. Larimer and his friend, Ken Dunkin. Larimer had put his time in the station and had pull to get his own show, and, luckily, he and Ken were huge wrestling fans. I convinced them that I could get the guests from WWF for the show, so the three of us started up BodySlam Radio. Yes, creativity is just flowing from the name. Actually, I had a bunch of other names I wanted to use ... honest! ... but, Larimer wanted Body Slam, so that's what we had.

I ended up going back to WWF as a part-time employee in the summer of 1998. I came back for another year of BodySlam Radio -- this time with just Dunkin and I as hosts. After graduating with a Bachelors of Journalism degree from Mizzou, I went to work at WWF as part of WWF.com.

At the time, in 1999, the Internet was booming. The Mark Cubans of the world were popping up everywhere, and people were making millions. It looked like the future of journalism and media. Over time, I found out the Internet will always be just a peripheral device for marketing and news gathering.

I had a great time at WWF. Long hours, but, what the hell, I was young and single. I spent the next three years as a writer, producer and co-host of various Internet shows and sites at WWF.com. I met one of my best friends - Seth Mates - and we had a ball promoting one of the hottest entities on television.

In 2002, Seth and I had bigger dreams. We had become good friends with Shane McMahon - the son of Vince - and we approached him about becoming part of the television creative writing team. He informed us that we would have to submit two 10-to-20 page storylines to Stephanie McMahon, his sister, who was the head of the writing team. Seth and I wrote for a few days, submitted the angles, and weeks later, we were officially television writers.

Lots of stories, anecdotes and "What the hell?" moments later, Seth quit the company in late 2002. We both found out that a year in the business felt like a lifetime, and Seth went on to become a big shot in the newspaper biz. I stayed on for six more months before, shockingly, being unceremoniously thrown out by Stephanie. It ended up being a blessing in disguise, as the stress, lack of sleep and the absense of a personal life starting to wear on me.

I stayed in the New York City area for a while, trying to get on as a writers' assistant with Nickelodeon. SpongeBob Squarepants had just hit big, and I wanted to get on with them, but, again shockingly, wrestling writers don't have the best reputation in the rest of the television world. I eventually moved back to Kansas City to finally start my broadcasting career. Looking back, I loved and, eventually, hated my time at WWF, but I had achieved my goal of becoming a television writer.

In late 2003, I started freelancing for a cable-only, 24-hour television station in Kansas City called Metro Sports, which is owned by Time Warner Cable. I would shoot, edit and report on the Chiefs, Royals and assorted other professional teams that would come and go at will.

In 2005, I started getting more on-air time as a reporter and, eventually, anchor. I continue to work there today with a great team of friends.

In 2006, I met the one girl that would put up with all my flaws. I'm the luckiest guy in Belton.